up to 400 refugee children stuck in France

Hundreds of unaccompanied children claiming to have relatives in Britain are stranded in France where their asylum cases are not being actively considered, senior human rights lawyers have said. A study by the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) released a year after the demolition of the Calais refugee camp, warns that as many as 400 children are trapped in France and are still vulnerable to trafficking, abuse and disease.

The allegations that asylum applications are not being properly considered is disputed by the Home Office, which points to six alternative legal routes by which children can still enter the UK.

These include the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement scheme and refugee family reunion programmes. More than 900 unaccompanied, asylum-seeking children were allowed into the UK from Europe in 2016, according to the Home Office, which insists that it works closely with EU states on applications.

Barristers from the committee were among a small number of legal observers present when shacks and temporary accommodation on the site were dismantled by the French authorities at the end of October last year.

“Children were subjected to a chaotic and unlawful age verification and registration process, based in many cases on physical appearance alone,” the report by Kirsty Brimelow QC and Jelia Sane, who were in the camp, says. “The methods employed by officials were arbitrary and discriminatory.” Read on